


Choice of Vipers' Dens

by KnittingSamurai



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mobfell (Undertale), Blue is an officer, F/M, Gender Issues, Lamia AU, Lamia Papyrus - Freeform, M/M, Minor Character Death, Multi, Naga Papyrus, Naga Sans, Other, Poisoning, Stretch is an asshole, and a bit(a lot) repressed, edgeberry, lamia sans, yeah that pretty well describes it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:01:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 12,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22964851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KnittingSamurai/pseuds/KnittingSamurai
Summary: I like what I like and I like Mobfell, Edgeberry, and Nagas.Baby's first fic, be gentle.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 32





	1. Are We the Baddies?

Officer Blue mentally weighed the evidence box. Sure, he could pick it up, but could he carry it up two flights of stairs and across the building with his bad knee? He could separate the box, fill out a form with what he took out and make two trips-

A commotion drew his attention to the basement entrance of the station. No one should be using it with the new parking garage on the other side of the building. There wasn’t even reason to guard it, the door was built like a vault and had a key card lock that logged ID numbers. An intruder would have better luck digging through the cinderblock wall it was in.

A crowd of uniforms walked by and Blue almost ignored it but for the muffled cursing. The right to remain silent had nothing to do with gagging someone. In fact, leaving someone free to rant was a fair work around to that right.

There was laughter and sounds of hitting, grunting, and a strange, metallic clicking. Blue was ashamed of himself for staying hidden. A radio crackled and the noises stopped as someone answered it. And then they left, walking by the evidence room and talking about later. Something about making him disappear and no one missing him.

Blue left the room when he heard them on the steps. _Don’t sneak, act like you belong exactly where you are._ He didn’t always like Stretch but the guy knew how to be shady. 

Someone was leaning against the ancient upright radiator. It didn’t work, so he wasn’t in danger of being burned.

“Um, hello?” He stirred and fixed him with a glare of such hatred, Blue felt it physically push him away. He was a skeleton monster, badly disheveled, and the officers had taken his shoes. He was handcuffed to the radiator and gagged.

This is not how to handle an arrest. Not one of the officers had mentioned paperwork, booking him. _No one will miss him. _

Blue pulled the gag from the prisoner’s mouth. The prisoner nudged his hand away with his chin. Blue held up the keys to the handcuffs. He glared but nodded. Blue began unlocking the handcuffs. “So, what’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?”, the prisoner asked. He had a black tear drop under each eye.

“I’m a guy. I was in the evidence room.” Blue freed him from the radiator and pulled the stranger to his feet. Blue could barely look over his shoulders, which were so wide that if Blue tried to hug him, he wouldn’t be able to reach his back. His sleeves were rolled up, revealing a radius and ulna as big as his thigh. The skeleton was built like he had farmer’s muscles, the kind of muscle one gets when they work hard for a living and don’t care what they look like. 

Blue never hated being short and willowy so much as right now. It had earned him the name Bluebird, because he was delicate as a bird’s bones. Being called ‘Birdie’ made him break out in a rash. Even when Stretch did it.

“Your buddies in blue are gonna be mighty mad to find I’m not where they left me.”

“They’ll live.” They started walking down the hall.

“You might not.”

“They wouldn’t hurt me”, Blue scoffed.

“So you’re going to report them for this?”

“Of course.”

Blue reached the door and found that someone had taped down the bolt to keep the door from locking. He was able to just push it open, no showing his badge to the keypad or turning the handle. He held the door open for the stranger.

“Ya gotta name, cutie pie?”

“Blue.” The monster didn’t ask about his lack of a family name.

“Not an officer?” the stranger looked over Blue’s well-kept but inexpensive clothes that were in no way a uniform.

“A technician…” He hated it, dang knee injury. “I handle records and reports.”

“Sound’s boring.” 

_You don’t know the half of it,_ Blue thought.

“By the way, the name’s Red, sweetheart.”

“Best be on your way, Mr. Sweetheart,” with a challenging smirk that said he knew exactly what Red meant. He pulled the tape off the bolt and wadded it in his pocket.

“I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around, though you might not see me.”

“I better not see you here again. I might not be conveniently down the hall to rescue you.”

”Fair enough, cutie pie.”


	2. The Good Guys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We meet the Edge of the Edgeberry. I hope I made it clear that Blue is human.

Blue was apoplectic. His ears were still ringing. _What do you mean can I prove it?_

Blue tossed his bag by the door and flopped on the couch. Had he really thought that anything would happen? That he could report tampering with the door, a kidnapping, and their plans to murder a bound prisoner and the Chief would do anything but smirk with smug, false pity? Why did the officers think they could do that except for a history of getting away with it? 

Why didn’t he at least wait a day or two so that someone could be locked out the next time they ‘forgot’ their ID? That would be a prank worth playing. Hell, he could name at least three people who would have their ID but still be locked out because they couldn’t figure out the lock.

The thought of Officer Stretch sleeping outside the door until Blue swiped himself in and closed the door on him. _As proper, non-emergency entry procedure would dictate. _Or the Stars-damned Chief.

_They would probably call me to open the door. No, to ‘fix’ the door. By which they mean use it exactly the way you were told to use it. _Unofficial tech support was the worst. And it wasn’t made better by the fact that Blue didn’t get the better pay the official title offered. That conversation had been a nightmare.

_“They’ll live.”_

_“You might not.”_

Tech support, coffee bitch, reports. Sure, research and reports were his job, but the other officers had their own reports to do, at least part of them. Blue’s part of the job was to print the report on nice paper, hole-punch the report, and put them in the nice folders. They dropped their, often handwritten and incomplete, paperwork on his desk and left to chat with their buddies. Stretch was the worst, trying to make Blue take dictation, withholding information, and making puns about taking dictation.

Blue sighed. He was taking too long to get over his crush on Stretch. The fact they worked together didn’t help. His angling to keep Blue as his secretary really didn’t help.

He needed to quit. He needed a new job, but… The least they would do is give him a bad reference. An image of Red chained to the heater flashed in his head.

_“They’ll live.”_

_“You might not.”_

A knock sounded at the door. Blue opened it to reveal a suit and tie-clad chest. He looked up to the sharpest face he had ever seen. This skeleton monster had the same black tear marks as Red. Where Red was broad, this monster was tall, Blue barely came up to his chest. The biggest differences between them were that this monster was smartly dressed and had good posture, as if proud of his good looks and fashion sense.

“Officer Blue, I presume?”

“Yes, are you related to Mr. Red?” There was only one monster named Red. Red Padilla of the Padilla Brothers gang. Suspected of running drugs, murder, racketeering, the works. 

Just like everyone in this town. Some just wore blue and talked about justice while they did.

“My brother. I am Edge Pallida and under the impression that I owe you for his safe return.”

His cufflinks could pay Blue’s rent. “You don’t owe me anything.” 

*

_Our progeny will rule the galaxy! _His grin softened from the necessary, polite smile he had before.

“I disagree. My brother is everything to me.” He looked both ways down the hall. “May I come in?”

Blue’s face scrunched in displeasure. “Sure.”

The flat was small, all one room but the box of the bathroom in the back. Edge had gone mad in a room bigger than this. Edge was able to sit at the kitchen table and comfortably talk to Blue on the couch. There wasn’t a bed, so the couch pulled double duty, he figured.

“So… Officer Blue… Interesting name for a human.”

“Padilla is an interesting family name for a Monster. One that doesn’t have any record until your father’s first suspected murder.” Of course, he looked them up. And found more than he bargained for most likely.

“Touché.” An image of Blue naked and chained to an altar flashed in his mind.

“So, why are you here again?”

“My brother told me what happened. And I wanted to be sure that you were alright.”

“I’m fine.”

“Liar.”

“I am.”

“Fine? A liar? Or a fine liar?”

“I’m fine. Like I told your brother, they wouldn’t hurt me.”

Edge drummed his fingers on his knee. “You don’t know them like I do-“

“I think I do,” Blue tried to be stern, it was cute.

“Then how many times have they done this? How many people have gone missing in your police station?”

Blue didn’t say anything.

“Any answer but admitting that there is no way to know is wrong. Several of my men have gone missing and, for a few of them, there isn’t any record they existed to begin with.”

Blue opened his mouth to answer that there were records but stopped himself. If Edge knew the people well enough to give their names, he had the right to copies of those records. He nodded, satisfied, as Blue realized the new sin on his fellow officers’ souls.

“So, the records do exist. There are several files I’d like if you are still in a ‘do the right thing’ mood.”

“Your father’s…” It didn’t need to be a question.

“You mentioned him. You haven’t been working for the Force long enough to have had access before they refused to give me those records. You must have looked him up recently. So, the records must exist. And I would like them.”

Blue didn’t question how he knew his work history. Of course, Edge had looked him up.

“I could lose my job if I did that.”

“I’m glad you realize the nature of the organization you work for. What do you do for them? I might be able to make use of your services.”

Blue wrinkled his nose. “What about the nature of your organization?”

“It pays better, we take care of our own, and we don’t pretend to be the good guys.”


	3. Getting Away with it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blue does the thing and learns somethings. Him have a conflicted about it.

Blue couldn’t believe he was doing this. Edge had given him copies of the original Requests for Information, which made his actions legal. He was letting a son know what happened to his father, which made his actions right. But he was doing it for a mob boss.

He was only taking copies. The records themselves would stay. If a civilian asked for them, the police were required by law to give the information.

But…

Here he was, doing the right and legal thing, entirely by the books. And he was certain that if any of the officers found out, he would disappear like the people in these files.

Because what was in these files wasn’t right and legal, phrases like ‘Advanced interrogation techniques’ and ‘washed down the drain’. Blue easily recognized the slang for ‘torture’ and ‘dusted a monster’ respectively.

And he didn’t find all the names. And he was unquestionably sure that without his help, Red would have been among the missing files. 

Reading the files that he did find was the worst idea. His mind ran in circles of horror. Which of his fellow officers would be the one to kill him if he was caught? He couldn’t look at anyone as he walked to his desk, afraid the question would be on his face.

He went about his day with the copies burning a hole in his bag. He had practiced his excuse of coming down with something in his bathroom mirror that morning, but no one asked how he was doing. He knew he had to be acting different, what with how often he caught himself sighing. 

His stomach clenched as he thought in circles. Was he trying too hard to act normal? Did he regularly sigh so often and was just hyperaware of it right now? Did they not care enough to notice?

Even Stretch, oldest friend and perpetual provider of penis puns ignored him.

Folders landed on his desk, he prettied them up and filed them. He kept his eyes on the clock on his computer, he never looked at the office clock. That would definitely draw attention. He swore that a few times that day, the analog clock went backward.

He would stay for an extra five minutes. He usually stayed longer but that should be enough time to not look suspicious.

The Commissioner’s office was the last he had to pass on his way out the door. He just drew near the door when he heard the voice of his supervisor. “If we fire Blue, we will actually have to pay for tech support.” Blue lengthened his stride, to the aggravation of his knee. He managed to speed from the office and catch his bus without speaking to anyone.

He focused on the burning in his knee to keep from crying and almost missed his stop.

His stoicism lasted until his apartment door closed behind him. He crumpled to the ground and curled up. He let his tears flow freely. 

He had known how little they valued him, but he had always thought that his hard work would be noticed. That he could prove he wasn’t a broken pretty boy and earn their appreciation. 

He clenched his fists, wanting to punch every smug face that had thanked him for his help but never suggested that he be paid for the job he was doing. Wanting to kick the ass of everyone that made fun of him when he had to stop to adjust his knee brace. He burned with how much he hated them all and how little he could do about it. 

For just a moment, he hated Edge too, for being right. But Edge wasn’t responsible for the police being assholes. Edge had nothing to do with their teasing or cheating him. And Blue would have gotten his face rubbed in the truth eventually, so even that wasn’t his fault.

If he quit the force, he would need protection and a job.

_“It pays better, we take care of our own, and we don’t pretend to be the good guys.”_

He needed a drink of water. He didn’t want to sound like he had been crying when he called Mr. Padilla.

He made the call and washed his face. His reflection looked exhausted but not like he had been crying. As good as it was going to get.

Edge arrived with that purposeful knock and a different pair of cufflinks that could pay Blue’s rent. Blue invited him in and offered him tea. Edge said nothing about the store brand tea. But Blue couldn’t help but wince at the horrifying sounds of the plumbing as he filled the pot.

“When my men live like this, it’s because they spend all their money on drugs.”

Blue rolled his eyes and handed over the stack of files. “Apparently when police live this way, they aren’t stealing from the people they bring in.” Edge pulled some reading glasses out of his front pocket and opened the first file.

“That explains why they took my brother’s shoes last week,” Edge said absently without looking up from the files.

Blue sighed, that felt like it had been years ago.

“Sorry, I couldn’t find all the names you gave me.” He really meant it. The dead deserved better.

“I’m surprised they kept this many records, at all.” He was still looking at the files, so Blue decided

“I … might take you up on that job offer.” Admitting defeat made his chest sting.

Edge hummed, not looking up from the records. 

“They’re going to fire me anyway. Unless there is another ‘Blue’ I don’t know about.” He wasn’t going to cry in front of a gangster.

“We both know that means you’re dead. You can’t read these files and not know that.”

Blue had his mouth open to argue when a knock sounded at his door.

Blue froze. It was Stretch, of all people. 


	4. Envenomated

Edge didn’t need to change his face to smell the ash of cheap cigarettes. “Well, invite him in.” The voice cut through Blue’s shock. And he invited Stretch in.

Only for the officer to freeze upon seeing Edge. His eyes darted to his reading glasses and the stack of files and he tried to keep a neutral look on his face. He finds his fellow officer, one of the most do-gooder pollyannas alive in this city, giving information to a mob boss (however legally done) and he feels neutral? Bullshit.

Edge held out his hand and said Blue’s name. Blue mechanically reached for it and was pulled into Edge’s chest. Edge engulfed him, trying to mask the intruder’s smell. Blue’s hygiene products smelled cheap, but he had put in the effort to choose harmonious woodsy scents.

“Good of you to join celebrating our glorious partnership,” he breathed close to Blue’s neck, trying to make it sound as lewd as possible. Edge felt the tension leave Blue’s body. Blue turned to nuzzle into the bones of his neck. Edge felt a rush of euphoria, his mate was seeking him for comfort and protection. And that connection he felt when they met was directing him to use the submissive body language of Edge’s specific type of Monster. Not an intuitive thing for a human, meaning their connection was strong.

Stretch sneered at him. “Blue would never work with a gang. He’s hated gangs all of our lives...” The words dissolved in Edge’s hearing, leaving the tone, _Not yours, Mine, I’m the better mate._

_Bullshit he was! _The hand at Blue’s back tensed, his claws, even in this shape, could tear through his gloves, Blue’s shirt, and skin all at once with a twitch. He almost stood, ready to toss Blue on the table and make him beg to be degraded just for the pleasure of wiping the smug smirk off this asshole’s face. Could he drive Stretch from the room before the cheap table broke?

He had to calm down, they were both running on instinct and this idiot was … baiting him? He knew who he was dealing with, that he wouldn’t be the first annoying cop to disappear after offending him.

“He heard talk about firing him. We know better than he does what that means. In simple terms, for a simpleton like you, it means you are the farthest thing from his friend.”

“We were talking about someone else. And you are a known criminal.”

“By name? and I didn’t say ‘you’ specifically,” he said with a smug smirk. “But if you were having that conversation and had no defense worth hearing then I doubt you ever were his friend.” Blue looked between them, eyes widening in realization.

Stretch sneered. “I don’t have to take this. Let’s go, Birdy.”

Blue tensed and a strange blush rose across his chest. It would have been fascinating if Blue didn’t immediately start scratching at it. Edge nudged Blue’s hands away from the rising rash and pressed his hand to the warming skin. Blue started swaying as healing magic made the rash even out, leaving the redness. When his legs gave out, Edge swept him into a bridal carry and strode past Stretch to lay Blue on the couch.

“I need to take care of my newest … acquisition,” he purred, as he unbuttoned Blue’s shirt. “I’m sure you know the way out.”

“You wouldn’t..!”

Edge stood and loomed over Stretch. He let the full force of his furious magic batter the offending human until he flinched. “Simple terms, for a simpleton, GET OUT.”

Stretch bolted from the apartment, leaving the door open.

Edge closed and locked the door and went to the sink, fuming. As he prepared a cold compress, he pondered being simultaneously relieved and disappointed in Stretch. Relieved that he didn’t have to kill someone in front of Blue on his first day. Disappointed because the world would be a better place without Officer Stretch. And disappointed in Stretch for calling himself Blue’s friend and running at the first sign of danger.

Blue was rubbing his eyes. “Wa happen…?” Edge placed the compress on the still reddened skin of Blue’s chest. 

“You’re a healing magic lightweight. Stretch said he was leaving and left.” Blue hummed acceptingly. Clearly Blue was scraping the bottom of the barrel in the friend department. Scraping so hard, he was digging himself to hell.

“Care to tell me about this?” He pressed on a bit of skin not covered by the compress and watched it change color. He was glad his bones didn’t do that.

“I hate that name, always have, always told him.”

“Why?”

Blue held up his arm and glared at it. “Like a bird’s bones, they said. Bird bones and blue eyes. Bluebird. I wanted to be big and strong. Maybe even some muscle. Your brother has nice muscles and strong bones for them. I bet he gives great hugs.”

“What do you think of my ‘muscles’?” Edge asked flexing a bit even if Blue was too blurry-eyed to see it. He felt the seams of his jacket strain. His brother had gotten him a ‘I would flex but I like this shirt’ for his birthday. It wasn’t kidding.

“Like, but different like. Wanna look at you, wanna look like him.” Blue’s voice drifted and his hand dropped limply. “Even at my strongest, I’m spindly.”

Edge checked under the compress and the skin there was clear. He took a blanket out from under the couch and covered Blue with it.

“What about you? With your weird name. Monsters don’t have last names.”

“That’s another story for another day. Where’s your alarm clock?” Blue mumbled his phone, Edge asked where it was and got it from the bathroom. Blue gave up the password and Edge turned off his alarms to wake up. He plugged the phone in the charger by the couch/bed and laid a couple twenties on it. He shot off a text and nodded approvingly when Blue’s phone chimed.

“Blue?” Blue hummed in answer. “You will sleep until you are rested.” Blue hummed, rolled onto his side, and his breathing evened out.

Edge finally let his face shift fully and shot his tongue out to smell. Stretch hadn’t returned. Edge waited until Stretch had been gone a full hour when he detected the slightest increase in Stretch’s smell.

He took off his jacket and unbuttoned his shirt. Only to button it back up haphazardly. He left his shirt untucked and tossed his jacket over his shoulder. He shifted his face back to normal.

Blue was whining, swiping at a stray hair that seemed determined to climb up his nose. Edge swept it away, tucking it behind his ear.

He left Blue’s apartment and locked the door with a twist of magic. As expected, he saw Stretch at the end of the hall and gave him a chipper salute. His face twisted at how disheveled Edge was, how he was just leaving, and maybe his good mood.

Edge loved every minute of his fake walk of shame.

*

Blue woke alone to his phone covered in money and a text from Edge. _I turned off your alarms. Take yourself out for a good lunch and text me when you are done._

Going to a restaurant was a treat Blue hadn’t indulged in… too long. He didn’t remember. He didn’t really have food in his pantry… Why was he thinking about this?

Because he had been out cold and all Edge did was take care of him? How long had it been since someone took care of him? Being held had felt amazing. How long…He was making up excuses.

It was likely a test. Some low level gang initiation thing that would build to him having to murder a little old lady to prove his loyalty.

Then again, he was hungry and had orders to feed himself.

He had to look up a restaurant that wasn’t fast food. He had been told to ‘Eat a good meal’ and that he would do. One soup and salad lunch combo later, he was texting Edge that he was done.

Edge responded that he was there to pick him up minutes later. Blue walked out to see the shiniest black car he had ever seen. His face swirled in the mirror-like finish as he walked up to the car. For a moment, he thought of his little hometown. And how the turkeys there would see their reflection, mistake it for another bird, and tear the hell out of that finish.

He got in the car and Edge seemed determined not to make small talk.

He took him to buy clothes. “I want you to look like I pay you.” Blue knew his clothes weren’t the best. But Edge looked unimpressed at Blue’s suggestion of a consignment shop. Even a nice consignment shop. Blue’s statement that he didn’t know how to act at a fancy store was dismissed because the tailor was used to Edge picking up strays. Often in worse condition than Blue.

The tailor’s store just looked like a door in a wall, not even a little paper ‘open’ sign in the door’s window. Inside was a tailor shop decorated by an Alphonse Mucha fangirl. He spotted at least one actual ad by Mucha but the rest were done in his style. Blue couldn’t remember off the top of his head if tuxedos had been around in Mucha’s time.

The Spider monster, Muffet was gentle and motherly. And handsy. But at his first sign of discomfort became clinical and professional. He didn’t know what to make of the change, Edge hadn’t come into the room to see anything and threaten her.

His eye, or rather fingers found a sample of a dreamy navy pinstripe fabric in a cashmere and silk blend that really, he just wanted a bolt of it to snuggle with. Edge approved a suit in it.

They left with an order for a whole new wardrobe. He had snuck a look at the price of that bolt of fabric and nearly fainted. Edge ordered suits, blazers and jeans, several shirts, and accessories, all made of equally expensive fabric. Blue tried not to feel sick at the thought of so much money. When the order came in, it would more than double the size of his wardrobe.

Edge left him at his apartment with a reminder about a placement interview on Monday.<strike></strike>

Blue decided that he would take the rest of the weekend to clean his apartment. He had no idea what hours the gang would have him work and whether he would be mentally able to clean afterward. The idea that he would work banker’s hours in a criminal enterprise was laughable. So, his apartment had to be spotless. 

Blue was interrupted by and answered the door to Officer Stretch’s knock. 

He was his usual disheveled self and it was impossible to tell if anything was out of the ordinary. As soon as he was in the door, he patted Blue on the shoulder. A stinging pain made Blue jump away. Stretch held up his hands as if he had no idea what happened.

Except, Blue could see the pin, dripping his blood strapped to Stretch’s hand.

Blue rushed him and pushed him out the door, slammed, and locked it. He ran to grab his phone when keys jingled in his door. He locked himself in the bathroom and called Edge. He said that he was on his way but didn’t hang up.

A voice called him through the door. It was former Officer Jerry, a nasty old man with a history of sex scandal shenanigans. And a name that appeared many times in the folders that Blue gave Edge.

Blue was comforted by the rumble of Edge’s car through the phone. He glanced at the phone and noticed his hands. He turned to look in the mirror. _Oh, shit._


	5. Getting There

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The reason I have an 'explicit' tag on this fic.

Edge arrived at Blue’s apartment complex. When he reached Blue’s door and found it ajar, he let his face transform, flicking his tongue to taste… EVERYTHING. 

The Ashtray’s scent was present but fading quickly. Blue was scared and in a strong, sick heat that Edge knew certain drugs could induce in a human. And an unknown male was in his mate’s territory. 

Edge calmed, bless Blue for oiling the door hinges because they made no sound as he entered. Blue had holed up in his bathroom, the only room with a door. The intruder, an unwashed, reeking former officer Jerry had his back to Edge and was at that door, trying to convince Blue to let him…Edge didn’t know what the innuendo meant. But no one talked to his mate like that.

He was inches from the intruder when his shadow fell on him. Jerry didn’t finish trying to demand to know who Edge was when he bit him. It was a strike light as a feather, but Jerry foamed at the mouth and dropped to the side immediately.

Edge composed his fangs away and knocked purposefully on the door. “Blue, it’s me.”

There was shuffling behind the door. Blue asked, “What happened to Jerry?”

“He’s fine.” Edge looked at the blank-staring officer. “We’re leaving.”

The door opened, revealing a Skeleton monster deep in heat. He was shaking and coated with sweat colored the blue of Officer Blue’s eyes. Edge restrained the need to change his face and taste him. He held out his hand and Blue took it. He never even looked at Jerry as Edge led him out of the apartment.

*

Blue swayed in his seat. He leaned against the door of the car and let the pretty lights out the window dance in his wavering vision.

“This is a big reaction for an Accelerant gone bad. Usually, they don’t work at all if they don’t work well.”

“You’d know, wouldn’t you?” Blue scoffed.

“I would.”

Blue curled up against the door of the car, as much as the seatbelt would let him. He was entirely focused on his sweating and shaking.

Edge pulled off his glove with his teeth and pressed the back of his hand to Blue’s forehead. He should have left the glove on. His mate was burning.

“I can help you, you know.”

Blue squirmed. “No, thank you.”

“Why?”

“Last week I was a cop, it sucked but I knew what was going on. Now I’m…” he held up his hand “and now I’ve been turned into skeleton monster in heat because I am a traitor. It’s too much.”

“So, I don’t need to tell you how Monster heats work?” Blue grunted.

“Aren’t heats supposed to feel good? I feel like shit.”

“Horny shit?”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. And it will likely take a magic infusion from another monster to fix.”

“Meaning…?”

“Cum, Semen,” seeing Blue’s reaction, he couldn’t resist. “Baby batter, high fructose porn syrup.” Blue made outraged choking noises.

“As much as I love teasing you, your heat is advancing quickly and you are at risk of overheating. I’m pretty sure that you wouldn’t revert back but might dust like a monster.”

Blue turned away and blinked back tears. His pants were too tight. He was too aware of the clothes against his skin? Bones? They itched, and he wanted them off. Blue rubbed his thighs? Femurs? together. His thoughts were getting fuzzy. And it hurt, flu-like full-body pains.

“What can you do anyway? It’s gone and we’re both men.”

“Plenty. What do they teach you children these days?”

“Not about Monster sex apparently.”

“I could still do plenty if we were human.” Blue’s silence spoke for itself. “So much fun can be had with that pretty ass of yours. Or at least, your hipbones”

“Like spanking? How will that help my heat?”

“Innocent boy, I will show you delights that you cannot imagine.”

“Uhhh….”

“I said that out loud, didn’t I?” He smirked with not the slightest apology.

“Yes, yes you did.” Blue leaned away from him, trying to pass through the door like a ghost.

“I really do love this conversation but if you wait too much longer, you’ll overheat and pass out. I can still help, but you will need to tell me that beforehand.”

“I don’t want that. I want-” he choked. He tried several times to say it.

“If the relationship is what scares you, we can figure that out after we burn off the Accelerant. You helped my brother and I, for that alone I would help you.”

“What other reason do you have?”

“I was planning to ask permission to court you.”

“What.”

“Monsters tend to know immediately if someone is compatible. And we are very compatible. I was hoping to have more time to prove that to you before I asked to court you.”

“Back to what I was saying, if it is the sex that scares you, domineering bullshit aside, I will stop when you tell me to. I will stop when you can’t tell me. I will only do what you ask me to do or what you approve of with a clear mind. While you are with me, I will do everything in my power to keep you safe.”

Blue blushed so hard, his face hurt and nodded mutely.

“I’m driving and can’t see whatever you’re doing. I need words.”

“I understand. Thank you.”

“Now, back on my domineering bullshit. Please strip to your shirt and socks. And form a pussy.”

His stomach? Magic? clenched and formed as instructed. Blue’s hands shook as he untied his shoes. Had he been human, he would have blanched at the sight of wet, puffy, blue lips between his legs with a peek of more inside himself. By the time Edge stopped at a red light, Blue had a neat pile of clothing with his shoes on top. Edge glanced over and grunted approvingly at his tidiness.

“I was thinking, you play with yourself until we get home and then ride me.”

Blue choked.

“I don’t know…” he gestured vaguely to his lap.

“Right, you’ve never had one…”

Blue would never admit he hadn’t touched his human parts either.

Edge quickly checked Blue’s temperature. His mate was hurting. Whatever they were going to do needed to be done now. His jaw hurting pulled him from his musing. He glanced in the mirror to see that his face hadn’t changed. He calmed himself, his venom wasn’t needed here. His other form might be needed later, depending on how much this one session helped Blue.

Edge took Blue’s hand, guided it to his lap, and nudged his knees apart. He guided Blue to stroke the lips of his pussy. He got a rhythm going and left Blue to it when the light changed.

Edge’s eyes were on the road but Blue felt watched.

He felt a cold tension in the bottom of his spine, he started whining and right when it was about to snap…

“Stop.” He did. He felt that tension drift away. He wanted it back.

“Why?” Blue demanded breathlessly.

“Because I want to watch you cum.” He glanced challengingly at Blue.

_I could refuse_, Blue thought as he glared at the side of Edge’s head. 

It would be nothing to continue just to spite Edge. To keep something from him. But why? Even if he was just a curiosity and would be discarded in the morning, wasn’t he expecting that? And, the more terrifying question, what if Edge was serious? 

“We’re here.” Edge pulled into a parking garage and flashed his ID. He pulled into a parking spot and turned off the car.

“Ready?” Edge unbuckled his seatbelt.

Blue trembled but nodded and unbuckled his own seatbelt. Edge guided him to sit astride his lap. Edge unbuttoned Blue’s shirt. That image of Blue chained to an alter flashed in his mind again. Edge licked his teeth at the thought. Blue leaned in to meet what he thought was a kiss but a finger against his teeth stopped him.

“Kisses are for mates,” Edge said reasonably. Blue looked meaningfully at himself in disbelief, as if to ask ‘What do you think we are about to do?’. “I’m guessing that I am going to be taking many of your firsts tonight.” Blue nodded unhappily. “If I can’t convince you to be mine, would you like to keep that one?”

“You’re going to use sex to convince me?”

“Sex is the least of it. There’s also aftercare, and snuggling, and breakfast. And a proper date.” Edge pulled Blue’s shirt down to expose his shoulders and trap his arms.

Edge sucked viciously under Blue’s jaw and drew back to admire his work. The bone sparked with magic, if he changed back to a human, it would make a fine hickey. Edge darted in to savage his collarbone and neck. The spit was cold on his bones in a heavenly, refreshing way in his overheated state.

Blue balled his fists in Edge’s lapels. Blue could only hold on, he had no clue what to do. His whole body vibrated as Edge’s fingers teased along his folds. Part of him wanted Edge to get it over with. To live down to his expectations, but Edge was determined to make him talk, to do what he liked, and worst of all, make him admit he liked it. 

And Blue did. As soon as he said it, he was ready to take the words back. He couldn’t give someone that much power over him. But Edge’s crooning praise drove that thought away.

Then Edge said the magic words. “Let me take care of you.”

Blue felt his brain turn to mush. _His mate would take care of him._ He gave up trying to not to feel. He was with his mate, a good mate that would take care of him. Blue licked clumsily at Edge’s neck, unsure how far he could go with leaving hickies.

Edge’s fingers entered his magic slowly. Blue tried to move his hips to get some friction and Edge found his G-spot. Blue almost leapt away with how sensitive it was.

“Hurts?”

“No, good, you make me feel good…” Blue trailed off into babbling.


	6. The Big O

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Again, tagged Explicit for a reason.

Blue’s timid attempts at love bites were driving him mad. Teaching him how to do that properly was definitely something that would happen tonight.

Edge’s legs wanted to fuse, he could feel the magic growing, wanting to become his truly monstrous self. In this form, he was painfully hard and itched to fill Blue with magic. But, this was about helping Blue. He could feel that Blue wouldn’t last much longer.<strike></strike>

Blue whined and Edge pulled him back to look into his face as he came. Pain and confusion melted into calm and relaxation. Blue collapsed against Edge’s chest and Edge rubbed his back.

Edge had nothing but praise for his mate, from his twitching pussy to his pretty voice to just how good holding him felt. It triggered an aftershock that left Blue unwilling to move.

Blue was still too warm. But Edge knew exactly how to deal with that.

“You didn’t…” Blue couldn’t think of a euphemism he wanted to use.

Edge got the message anyway. “I will plenty. Let’s get you inside.” He shifted Blue to a one-armed carry one would use for a child. Blue rested his head on Edge’s shoulder to catch his breath. Edge fished around on the floor for Blue’s clothes and exited the car.

*

Their home had been a small hotel in a past life. Edge’s proud, tall physique harmonized with the straight lines of columns and art deco stained glass. His black and red suit stood out against the gold marble floors and cream walls.

Odd for a gangster’s base was the sound of children’s laughter. A tangle of children fell out of the elevator, waved at Edge, and darted in the direction of the pool.

What really drew Blue’s attention was their tails. From the ribcage down they had long tails like snakes.

Blue stared at the children that slithered down the hall. “What? “

“They haven’t learned to walk yet.”

“Haven’t-“Blue looked from Edge’s face to his legs.

“Would you like to see?”

“You don’t have to kill me if I do, do you?”

“No, I don’t.” Edge walked to one of the elevators and selected his floor. Edge’s room was, of course, the penthouse. The curtains were all drawn and the lights were low. Edge set Blue’s shoes by the door and took off his own shoes.

Red was waiting with a very full handful of papers. “Hey, Boss. I wanted to talk to you about-“ He stopped upon seeing Blue.

Desperate to break the tension, Blue greeted him, “Hi, Mr. Sweetheart.” The light left his eye sockets.

“Brother,” Red’s lightless eyes turned to Edge. “I’m going to need you to investigate a new Accelerant.”

“Right on it, Boss,” he said and walked out in a daze.

Edge entered the bathroom and offered him a choice of bathrobes. Then a choice of scented bath salts and a sports drink that he put on ice in a refrigerated drawer of the vanity.

“What’s all this?”

“For later. I did say that I would take care of you after.”

“All this?”

“I expect you to need it.”

Blue could only stare.<strike></strike>

Edge tossed Blue’s clothes in a laundry hamper and started undressing himself. “Leave your clothes in the hamper and follow me.”

Blue took so long to steady himself that Edge finished undressing, took some towels, and left the room by the time Blue toed his socks off. He dumped his shirt in the hamper and went to find Edge.

He tried to cover himself with his hands as he walked in. Edge picked him up and set him on the bed. Edge knelt between Blue’s knees.

“Watch me.” Blue nodded. Edge’s fangs lengthened and his jaw bones shifted. Edge yawned, his mouth opening at a full right angle. He wrapped his arms around Blue’s waist so Blue could see over his back as his tail appeared. His snake form was three times as long as his legged form was tall.

He pulled back and raised a browbone in challenge. Blue was at a loss. Edge placed a finger on Blue’s chest and directed him to lay down. As he was trying to wrap his head around this, he felt a wet lick run up his slit.

“Hey! Don’t bite me!”

“Not going to. My venom wouldn’t help you here.”

“You’re saying there are times it would?”

“If I knew which of my kind’s venom they used to make your Accelerant, and they knew I wasn’t their enemy, my venom could cancel theirs. With a stranger, our venoms would fight for dominance- “

“That sounds bad.”

“Yes, very much. I know they didn’t use mine and none of the children’s venoms make an Accelerant that does this.”

“There’s more of you out there,” Blue said wonderously.

“I will worry about them when I am not worried about you.” Edge scraped his teeth down Blue’s femur. Blue shivered.

Edge rose up to reveal his hemipenises. Blue’s pupils shrank to pinpricks at the sight. Edge muttered sweet nothings to him until his breathing normalized.

“Do you know why snakes have two penises?”

“Uh, no…”

“To fuck all night long and fill our mates with cum.”

“Uh…”

“No, really. Female snakes are able to store semen for years and choose which male’s semen they want to be impregnated by. So the best way to get your snakey girlfriend pregnant is fill her with cum. Hence, males have two dicks. I can keep fucking with one while the other recovers.”

“Uh..”

“All,” he kissed Blue’s chest. “Night,” he kissed Blue’s shoulder. “Long,” he sucked under Blue’s jaw.

“Smartypants.”

“No pants, just smart.” He gave a suggestive wiggle of his hips that made his dicks bob about. Blue laughed. “Never stop making that noise” and dove between Blue’s legs.

Blue tried as Edge sucked and licked the sensitive lips of his pussy but started moaning when that tongue entered him. Edge’s fingers hadn’t reached that far. That tongue twisted inside him, hitting his g-spot and making his leg involuntarily kick. Blue apologized. Edge gave him an irritated look, hiked his other leg over his shoulder and started hitting that spot with fervor. Blue’s leg kept kicking until it tensed, signaling Blue’s release.

“I will ask when I need an apology.” Blue nodded, drunkenly.

Edge rose over Blue, lining up their hips. He had to arch high to be eye-level with Blue. “Ready?”, Blue gave a squeaky ‘yes’. Edge pressed in, Blue had a view over Edge’s shoulder of the end of his massive tail wagging in eagerness behind them. It was strangely cute. When they were close enough, Blue wrapped his legs around Edge’s waist and tried to pull him in. Edge froze, half in, and Blue could move him no more.

“Want something?”, he asked as if he didn’t know. Blue whined and tried to pull him in again. “Use your words,” he chided.

“Hurry up!” Blue blinked at his own forwardness and hastily added, “please?”

Edge chuckled but obliged. Once fully seated, he directed Blue’s face to his shoulder. “Bite me.” Blue offered a timid nip on what would be a human’s clavicle. “Harder.” Blue bit again and held it. Edge had him increase the pressure until Blue’s teeth hurt. And then, told him to let go and bite that hard. Blue psyched himself up and did it. 

Edge’s massive tail whipped out and knocked over a lamp. Edge grabbed his hands pinned him to the bed and pounded into him. He only eased up when the bed gave a warning creak.

Blue’s brain fizzled out, leaving him a moaning mess. Stretch, Jerry, the poison were all forgotten and the only thoughts left were about how right this was. The terrifying monster holding him down and rutting him hard enough to break the bed brought him a peace that he had spent his life trying to find.

He whined as another orgasm made him see stars and Edge vibrated as his own tore through him. Blue watched, fascinated and disturbed as a blob of red magic sprayed from Edge and floated freely in his magic. The bundle of Edge’s magic in his pelvis shrank, and blue flesh spread down to his knees, forming thick thighs and buttocks.

Blue was aghast, he tried to form words, to apologize for his magic. Edge’s fingers shot into Blue’s mouth and held down his tongue. “Don’t apologize.” Edge licked and sucked at the flesh until his hand landed on Blue’s newly formed ass. Blue squirmed, he wasn’t sure if the flesh was more sensitive than his human skin or if he wasn’t used to his thighs being licked. Edge released Blue’s tongue, flipped him over, and proceeded to kiss, suck, and sink his fingers into the flesh.

“You make such beautiful things for me?”

“I’m-“, a growl from Edge cut him off, “wasn’t expecting it to do that!”

“Pity I can’t bite you right now. I would love to feel my fangs sinking into this softness.” He gave the flesh an appraising squeeze.

“Maybe if I’m good you’ll let me do this again.” Somehow it didn’t sound like a question.

Blue tried to look over his shoulder.

“Maybe after the next one you will give me some pretty leg muscles,” he said with a kiss to the bone below his knee.

“You’re a snake! How do you have a fetish for calves?!”

“Because I don’t have them.”

Edge wrapped his coils in front of Blue and directed him to lay on top of them, ass in the air.

Edge’s hand stilled on Blue’s hip and he glanced at the clock. Blue wiggled, uncomfortable with the wait. “You’re heating up faster than before. It seems playtime is over.”

“Right.” 

“For the record, you couldn’t have chosen a better monster for the job.”

“Right.” Feeling Edge tense, Blue immediately regretted his tone.

Edge answered his challenge with a quick thrust into his magic. From there, the pistoning of his hips did not stop. Blue came again, and Edge kept going. The next time he came, so did Edge and his magic formed back muscles and breasts. True to his word, Edge pulled out his spent dick, slipped in the other, and continued, only breaking rhythm to grab Blue’s very full and sensitive breasts.

Blue lost count of his own orgasms, much less Edge’s, but eventually the ectoflesh reached up his neck. Edge left a few hickies so he could ask later if they felt different when done on the flesh verses directly to the bone.

With a final thrust, he buried himself deep for another transfer of magic. This one caused human skin to form over the flesh. Edge pulled out and watched the ectoflesh contract, shaping itself into Blue’s too skinny, human body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I see so many snake/ hemipenis fics where either it is an excuse for double penetration with one guy or the other dick is a ovipositor. This ignores the true use of hemipenises, bukkake and stuffing. No cowards here.


	7. Aftercare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cleanup

Blue’s heat broke and he was sure that he could hear it. He was very aware of how cold the sweat he was covered in was. 

Blue’s entire body felt like it was made of jelly. His mind was a liquid sloshing about in his skull. He was barely aware as Edge carried him to the bathroom.

Edge let the bathtub fill while he gave Blue the sports drink from earlier. Blue hadn’t noticed that he carried the towels with him until he threw them in the hamper. He dumped a cup of scented salts in the water and stirred the bath with his arm. 

When Edge held up his arm to sponge it off, Blue was dimly aware that his flesh was back.

“That was fast.”

“As soon as the heat broke, you had flesh.”

Blue hissed as the sponge ran over his hickies.

“I like you better like this.”

“When I’m human?”

“When you’re relaxed, trusting me. You are so scared, so much-”

“I’m not scared of you.”

“You would rather show anger than fear and you are very afraid.”

He finished sponging Blue off before climbing into the water with him. His coils arranged themselves so that Blue was cushioned on all sides. His head fell back on the coils and he let the water soothe the hickies on his neck.

His head rolled like he had a newborn’s neck strength. “I love you so much.”

Edge chuckled, “I’ll hold you to that in the morning.” Edge snuggled him close. “I realize that I have told you I want you but not that I love you. I love you. I want to spend the rest of my days taking care of you.”

“I’ll hold you to that in the morning,” Blue said sleepily.

“I hope so.”

When the water started getting cold, Edge picked him up, wrapped him in a bathrobe and took him back to bed. Edge slithered into bed and piled his coils around and above them. Blue snuggled into his neck and was immediately asleep. Edge followed soon after.

*

Blue woke to Edge reading in bed with him. There was flesh on his bones again. He rolled his shoulders, feeling out the mass of hickeys on his neck.

Edge’s legs were back and his fangs were gone. It felt like a dream, even the soreness was less than he expected. A far cry from the crippling, barely able to walk for days pain that his foster mother had terrorized him with and the officers at the depot had bragged about inflicting.

Edge had gotten in the bath with him the night before and the smell from that mixing with Edge’s own scent was comforting. He wanted to lay back down and keep smelling his mate.

Except he was hungry. And had a morning wood that the robe would not hide.

He pretended that he didn’t watch Edge get dressed. Despite the eye contact, Edge pretended not to notice. His statement that he didn’t have any clothes but what he had worn here, was met that they were going back to his apartment for him to change.

The conversation ended with the decision that Blue would move into a room at headquarters. He refused to commit to staying in the penthouse with Edge but conceded that his apartment wasn’t safe.

He rode back to his building still wearing the bathrobe. His apartment was fine, Jerry had even closed, not locked, his door. The apartment had been furnished and after he took his books back to the library, all his worldly possessions fit in a gym bag and a box. And weren’t even heavy enough to worry his knee. Edge took them anyway.

The realization that he wasn’t coming back hit him. Edge pulled him into a hug and rocked him. That feeling rose, that strange surety that Edge would take care of him. Edge held him the whole way to the car.

Edge took him to a small café for breakfast. As he was eating, something Edge said occurred to him.

“So, does this count for both breakfast and a proper date?”

Edge rolled his eyes, “As if I would use such cheap tactics to half ass my courtship! I am planning a proper date as we speak.”

Blue only huffed in amusement. “You really didn’t want me to apologize last night.”

“You had nothing to be sorry for. I refuse to let you think you did.” He looked Blue over. “You aren’t sorry, are you?”

“I’m sorry I trusted Stretch and got put in that mess.” He wasn’t bitter about it, no siree.

“He should be sorry he betrayed you. If my research is at all accurate, he was…”

“There, he was… there. It’s going to take a while to come to terms with the fact that he wasn’t anything to me.”

“I didn’t know him long, but he seemed possessive of you.”

Blue nodded. “He didn’t like other people around me. When we were younger, he said it was to protect me. I later learned that he was blaming all his ‘pranks’ on me.”

“I don’t imagine your foster family had a very good sense of humor.”

“Neither did Stretch. His pranks often ended with someone getting hurt. Broken arms, eyes put out, a concussion. Honestly, we should all have been taken. But he learned to give the prettiest, empty apologies and they made excuses for him.”

“Say the word and I will destroy them.” How had Blue forgotten that he was talking to a mob boss?

“I don’t want them hurt or killed, but they shouldn’t be allowed to take care of children.”

“Done.”

Blue sighed.

“I still don’t understand why I trust you.”

Edge drummed his fingers on the table. “Have you ever noticed that different types of Monsters are… different?” Blue nodded doubtfully. “Well, the difference isn’t just in our looks, it’s in our body language. Compatible souls will communicate to translate these different body languages. Humans can rarely do this too. And that is what you are feeling. Yesterday, you were acting like a subordinate of my kind that was seeking my protection. That isn’t how you would have sought comfort from a human is it?”

Blue slowly shook his head. “So, we’re soulmates?”

“Yes, and by the narrow definition that Humans overuse, too. With Monsters, it doesn’t just mean lovers, it can mean good neighbors, loyal friends, found family, and pleasant acquaintances. It is the backbone of Monster community.

Humans like to portray it as purely romantic and sexual and as a pass on being an asshole. It is merely a translator. If I was being an ass, I couldn’t hide behind our different body languages like I very often do with people I don’t match with. You, on the other hand, would be better able to tell that I was being an ass.”

“So, what am I feeling?” Blue asked, rubbing his chest.

Edge had to think on it. “It might be because you have never been in the presence of a good match, of any relationship type. Humans can at least guess I have always had my father and brother, and now I have a gang and several children in my care. Quite a lot of which are matched to me and all are matched to someone else I am matched with. I can’t imagine not having that feeling.”

“And that … drunken feeling I get around you?”

“Likely related to the same. It hit you hard because you aren’t used to it.”

Blue thought about it for a moment. “So… you mentioned the human soulmate stereotype. Does that mean you like romance novels or rom-coms?”

Boy, did he ever. And boy, did he have opinions on them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m using my experience with a runner’s high as a stand-in for subspace. I told my lipgloss that I loved it.


	8. Proper Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Writing sex is hard, writing dates is harder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No beta reader, we die like men!!

After some exploring, Blue decided that the hotel could more be called an event hall with some rooms attached. The first floor was the lobby, event room, pool and Edge’s office. Second floor was mostly taken up by the high ceilings of first floor rooms with two honeymoon suites over Edge’s office. These were Red and Blue’s rooms. Third floor had the rest of the hotel’s rooms/the children’s rooms and Fourth was Edge’s penthouse.

He was still training Red on the upgraded surveillance system but was proud of the progress he had already made. He liked to go into the control room and just bask in his sense of accomplishment. When he arrived, the system was pitiful. They were using and reusing VHS tapes. The first time Blue had seen Red swap out a tape and curse it out when the machine ate the tape, Blue had offered to upgrade their system.

Edge didn’t even look at his two lower estimates. And didn’t blink at his ‘best money could buy’ estimate. And had paid extra to have everything rushed.

This was one of the rare times that the amount of money didn’t make him sick. There were children here. Traumatized children, whose venom was a clearly valuable street drug. There was no doubt that this system was worth every penny.

It was rare that he thought that way. This place was too rich for his blood and all he could see was things that could have helped people. Edge paid taxes and donated to charity but still. Were marble floors, luxury sports cars, and fancy suits really needed?

He passed through the lobby on his way back to his room. He glanced up at the camera in the corner. Intellectually, he knew that he wasn’t able to see the aperture irising to focus on him but he liked to imagine he could. 

He saw Red, who was carrying several garment bags with a familiar logo. “Hey, there you are, I have some-“ The elevator doors opened to reveal several of the children. They looked between them and chirped at Red. He answered and they lit up, chirping in rhythm. Blue blinked in confusion, the hisses and chirps meant nothing to him. 

Red started chanting “Fashion show” in time with the children.

“Alright, fine.” Red handed over the bags and Blue went into the lobby’s bathroom.

He hung up the bags on a stall door. Blue could barely look at the bags. The hangars were fancy enough to have rotating hooks. The ‘dry clean only’ label made him sick. The first one he opened was for a tuxedo.

Edge found him sitting on a toilet, trying not to be sick. A hand entered his field of view and he rushed to hold Edge. Immediately Blue felt better and it took a moment to realize that Edge was humming and swaying with him.

“Please talk to me.”

“I’m fine.”

“People who are fine do not sit, fully clothed, on a toilet for half an hour and fail to notice me walk in.”

“It’s silly.”

“Nothing that hurts you is silly.”

“It was a long time ago.”

“Some wounds do not heal when left untreated.”

“The tux reminded me of a funeral for one of my foster brothers. It’s the only reason I’ve ever worn a tux.”

Edge sighed, trying to remember if he told Blue there would be a tux. He decided it didn’t matter. If Blue was this reluctant to tell him now, in privacy, there was no way he would have told him then after Muffet made him uncomfortable.

“Want me to send it back?”

“No, I was just caught off guard. I’m not ready to wear it yet, but I don’t want this to hold me back.”

“Fair enough, I’ll put it in the back and will wait outside.”

Blue listened to Edge rearrange the hangers and leave. The new first bag had shirts in it and he tried on a dark blue one. Honestly, he didn’t know what to make of sleeves that hit him at the exact right length. He held up his arms and the back didn’t pull. Shirts that fit, what a concept. And this one would look amazing with that navy pinstripe he remembered.

As he was going through the suits, he noticed something that made him check the all of the labels.<strike></strike>

He came out carrying the jacket of the first suit, a dark blue wool plaid with a light blue shirt. It made his eyes look impossibly blue.

“It’s warm as a jungle in here and you bought me all wool suits.”

“It won’t be as warm elsewhere.” Blue looked over Edge, comfortably wearing a suit and vest while Blue was already starting to sweat in long sleeves. Red’s suit was wrinkled, unlike his brother but he still had long sleeves, a vest, and coat. And both suits had the same texture as his wool suits.

“Do you get cold easily?”

He was only answered by their pinched expressions.

“Oh, Stars. You’re literally cold-blooded gangsters.”

“Ha, ha. Put the jacket on.”

“You realize that I’m not cold-blooded and might get heatstroke?”

“Yes, we will make this quick. You have three more suits and I want you to pick one for our date tonight.”

“Those suits are only appropriate if we are going skiing.”

“Or for leaving on the floor.”

“Not before that date, buster!” Blue quipped before walking back in to change.

The other suits were fine for business meetings, black, slate, and such. But, as soon as he put his hands on it, he knew which one he wanted to wear for his date. He tried on the others and showed them off to the crowd outside. To his amusement, Edge was becoming increasingly excited as the number of suits dwindled. Edge’s face shifted to his snake form when Blue suggested trying one of the slate suits with a different shirt. It was thrilling to rile him up.

Saving the best for last, he paired it with a dark blue shirt. The navy pinstripe suit was dreamy, both to touch and to look at. Yes, he was overheating but he couldn’t stop petting his sleeve. He looked in the bathroom mirror and stood straighter. He wasn’t being paid but he immediately thought that he should ask for a raise. The perfect suit to wear on a date.

Edge clearly agreed, his malicious grin was sharp and frightening. The children swarmed him and he had to take his coat off. He was dripping with sweat. Edge dismissed him to clean up for their date.

Blue didn’t have much in the way of accessories so cleaning up really meant hosing off the dripping sweat expected of wearing wool in jungle heat.

He met Edge in the lobby and Edge drove the black convertible (whose name Blue learned was Llamrei, after King Arthur’s horse).

The restaurant was… intimidating. It had a live band, they were playing Mozart as they walked in. The menus didn’t have prices, the napkins and tablecloths were real fabric. But he was with Edge, who made him forget that he didn’t belong.

He was right, the place was cold. Or maybe Blue was losing his cold resistance, living in the jungle hotel.

Edge got his payback for the teasing back at the hotel. Cool as a cucumber, he took advantage of how the tablecloth went all the way to the floor. Sometimes, he pinned Blue’s foot with his. Others, he trailed his foot up Blue’s pant leg. Blue flinched when Edge’s foot reached his crotch. Blue glanced up over his menu (with no prices, he internally fretted) and Edge was indifferently reading his own menu.

Blue decided two could play this game, even if there was no way in hell he could reach Edge with his own foot. He slid his hand under the table, rolled down Edge’s sock, and started massaging Edge’s ankle, as it was still sitting in his lap. Edge’s eyes shot to him. Blue briefely thought, _please don’t hit me_ and ran a fingernail down the exposed bone.

Edge took his foot away and reminded him to order dessert. Blue tried to read into that but came up with nothing.

They chatted. Books, movies, music. Apparently, they were both cat people. And liked stargazing. Next date, Blue would take him to the space museum. Small talk. It was relaxing. 

It was strange to realize how much of a fight talking with his police buddies had been. Even when they were ‘being nice’ as they called it, they were still full of back handed compliments and demands phrased as requests. He had always been under attack.

He wanted to talk with Edge forever and from their soul connection Blue understood that Edge was relaxing in a way he never allowed himself.

Soon, dinner and dessert were eaten and it was time to go home. Edge kept his arm around Blue the entire walk to the car. Once inside, he said that he felt someone watching them.

“That doesn’t really kill the mood, you know?” Blue slapped a hand over his mouth.

“Into a little exhibitionism, are we?”

Blue tried to imagine being caught or being on display. “Maybe a little.”

“I would love to fuck you in front of Stretch. Put that little shit stain in his place.”

“We ever get the chance to do it, we take it.” Blue decided. _Bastard_.

The conversation turned to joking about kissing on the first date and they arrived at home. Edge walked him up to his door. Edge leaned down to kiss him, Blue rose to meet him, and Edge stayed just out of reach.

“Okay, fine, you convinced me.”

Edge chuckled and drew him in. One hand in his hair, the other around his waist, Edge picked him up and walked him into the room. He set him on the bed and bit into his lip. Blue opened his mouth and Edge explored it. His tongue wrapped around Blue’s and pulled it into his mouth where he sucked on it.

Blue was a helpless mess, clutching onto Edge. Even if he had known what to do, he didn’t want to. Edge knew what he was doing. He would take care of him…

Edge pulled away and blinked in surprise. The skeleton of Blue was back. Blue blinked and looked at his hands in shock. He wasn’t fully skeletonized this time but also not as fleshy as his final form before changing had been. The flesh was shaped like his human body, just blue and see-through.

“Well, we’re in the right place to fix this.”

“I wanted to do this as a human!” Blue wailed.

“We will. Right after, if you’re willing.”

Blue looked sadly at his hands, phalanges, whatever. And then he got mad, Stretch wasn’t even here and was ruining his date.

A sharp ringing caught their attention. Edge snatched up the phone, saw his brother’s name and snarled. He continued the snarling when he answered the phone.

“Boss, we have a problem.”

Edge made no effort to hide the call from him, so Blue caught the name of the problem. His eyes widened. Edge caught his expression.

“I might have a solution,” Edge said into the phone. He drew out that last word and smiled crookedly at Blue.

“I’m willing.”

*

Red sauntered down the hall to open the door on the perpetually disheveled Officer Swap. He made Red look good by comparison, which should have been reason to like him.

However… 

If Red had skin, it would crawl away in the presence of so much LV. High LV, Red could respect. Being able to convince others that you were a good person in spite of that LV, Red wasn’t too proud to admit he envied him that. To do it while selling his friend’s soul for a corn chip? Red would be happy if Stretch would dust and blow away. Oh wait, humans don’t do that. Dry up and blow away, he guessed.

He was glad that he could lead the officer in with just gestures, he didn’t want to speak to the creep.

He led Stretch to his brother’s office, where Edge was glowering from his desk.

“Officer Stretch, to see you.”

“Hi,” he cheerfully greeted.

The Edge’s eyelights directed him to a single chair in front of the desk.

“What brings you here?” Edge asked.

“Officer Blue has gone missing and he was last seen with you. I was hoping one of you could tell me where he went?”

“Former Officer Blue,” Edge corrected.

“He will always be one of us. No matter his job status.”

“Agree to disagree on that.” He waved his hand, and the blue skeleton that was Blue’s monster form walked in. Stretch was flabbergasted, although that might have been because he was in a see-through babydoll night gown and matching panties. It might also have been the plump flesh covering him. Or the wet mound already soaking the panties.

“Insidious stuff, Accelerants,” Edge commented as Blue took his hand. “Never really know what they will do. This one was especially nasty. I mean, who would look for a female skeleton monster in heat when looking for a missing male human?”

He led Blue to sit on the desk, legs spread wide. Edge pushed aside the panties and eased two fingers into Blue angling straight for his G-spot.

He made eye contact with Stretch. “All the benefits of killing him, and a lovely fucktoy to play with.”

“That’s not Blue.” He sounded so sure, Red barely stifled a laugh.

“Let me prove it then.” Edge had his pants undone in record time and entered Blue’s dripping magic to a chorus of ‘yes, please’ from Blue. He began rutting purposefully, glaring daggers at Stretch.

Stretch didn’t move. Eyes empty, Red was sure that he was processing the fact that a dangerous mobster was enthusiastically screwing someone within arm’s reach.

It felt like forever, but Blue finally came twitching and gasping, and set off Edge. Red magic filled his abdominal cavity and was visible through him. It dissipated, and from that center flesh spread. Red was honestly fascinated by the sight.

“So”, Edge addressed Stretch, “how does he look?”

The babydoll nightgown hung empty on him without the breasts of his monster form. And the panties couldn’t contain his penis, leaving it to hang out one side. Red was sure there was a set fitted to his human form somewhere.

“He,uh, looks fine.”

“Are you done with us?”

“Uh…”

Edge picked up Blue and took him away. As soon as the door closed behind them, Red turned to Stretch.

“I don’t know what you gave him, but if I find any evidence that he isn’t the only victim, “ the light left his sockets, “YOU’RE A DEADMAN.”

Red smiled, his friendly smile back in place. “Understand?”

“Yeah, uh, sure.”

A loud moan came from the next room.

“What are they doing in there?”

Red chuckled, “wouldn’t you like to know?”

Stretch stared.

“Get out. And whatever you tell your buddies, be sure to tell them he’s ours now.”

Stretch bolted from the room. Red leaned in the doorway to watch him leave the hotel. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait.  
First, my word processor started checking for double spaces between sentences. It still did it even after I told it not to check for this issue. It had my anxiety through the roof, seeing all these ‘mistakes’. I couldn't look at anything in Word.  
In the middle of this, I started making masks on the weekends. This is the first weekend in six weeks that I haven't been working on masks. I don't have the right needles for four-ply, pleated cotton and have cried at my sewing machine in frustration. So, the masks are on hiatus until I can get denim needles, if the heavy duty needles don't work. 
> 
> What brought me back was a dream that I was talking to a publisher about my book and it was one of my rare positive dreams. I decided to check and the issue with Word is fixed. I can look at Word now.


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